Waters

Lough Melvin

Baseline tactics

Co. Leitrim (IE) / Fermanagh (NI) — cross-border · Lough · wild · 2.1k ha

Weather check

Issued 07:33

Moderate easterly10 km/h · gusting 19 km/hBlowing onto the west shore · fishing waveGusty — hard casting.

Today — conditions every three hours
Time	Sky	Wind	Air	Rain
06:00	cloud	ESE 12 km/h	4 °C	dry
08:00	sun	E 10 km/h	3 °C	dry
10:00	sun	E 9 km/h	8 °C	dry
12:00	sun and cloud	E 8 km/h	9 °C	dry
14:00	sun	ESE 12 km/h	10 °C	dry
16:00	cloud	ESE 10 km/h	10 °C	dry
18:00	cloud	ESE 5 km/h	9 °C	dry

Times are UTC · wind in km/h · sun and rain read left to right across the day.

Air: 3–10°
Wind: 12 km/h
Rain: Dry

Water

measured

Ideal 12 °C

Trout are willing at every depth.

Measured at Lareen on the water · OPW

Fishing wave on the forecast.

Today · Lough Melvin

Best window today is dawn, around 08:19.

Water · Ideal (12–16°C)

Fishability is the engine's own hourly score. Why these conditions matter.

Compare the week

This week

Dawn

Morn

Midday

Eve

Dusk

Today

Tmrw

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

ExcellentGoodFairPoor★ best of the day

Check season dates with the fishery (link below).

Where & when — all waters ›Pack for this trip — Kit Check ›

Depth character (estimated)

Mixed depths · to ~45 m

Water clarity (estimated)

Clear

Exposure (estimated)

Moderate

Species

Brown trout →Gillaroo →Sonaghan →Ferox →Arctic char →Atlantic salmon →

Getting there

Bank access: LimitedThere are several public jetties, but the lake's species mix and the open-water sonaghan game make Melvin predominantly a boat fishery. Rossinver Bay's controlled fly-only water gives the clearest shore-associated tactical focus.

Boats available

Kinlough Pier · Pier
Garrison slipway · Slipway

13 more unverified piers, slipways and car parks on the map (OpenStreetMap).

Features

Drop offsShoalsBaysIslandsRocky shorelinePointsRiver mouths

Weed: LightMelvin is an oligo-mesotrophic, peat-stained lake and not a classic heavy-weed fishery. Structure and depth gradients matter more than weed, though shallower bay and island margins are important.

Coarse fry present (Perch, Brown trout)

Local notes

Rossinver Bay and the Garrison/Breffni side are the main repeat-access fly-fishing centres; Rossinver Fishery explicitly maintains a fly-only section in Rossinver Bay. Melvin is not one uniform trout lake: ordinary browns are more bay-oriented, sonaghan are deep/open-water roamers, and gillaroo track benthic feeding zones. Best-attested condition pattern is that bright high sun makes sonaghan harder by pushing their food deeper over open water, while a breeze improving the drift helps both bay fishing and open-water wet-fly work.

Fishery rules & regulations

Fish here now